The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for carrying out multiple processes such as depositing, plating, polishing, etching a conductive material and rinsing, cleaning, and modifying the surface of a substrate using a vertically configured containment chamber. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a vertically configured containment chamber that can be used for carrying out a first set of processes using one section of the chamber and another set of processes using a different section of the chamber.
A conventional process step in the manufacturing of integrated circuits and devices involves plating a conductive material on a semiconductor wafer or a workpiece surface. For example, an xe2x80x9celectro chemical mechanical depositionxe2x80x9d (ECMD) method can be used to achieve such a result. One goal of ECMD is to uniformly fill the holes and trenches on the wafer/workpiece surface with the conductive material while maintaining the planarity of the surface. The ECMD process is generally performed in a chamber specifically designed for such deposition. A more detailed description of the ECMD method and apparatus can be found in the co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/201,929, entitled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus For Electro Chemical Mechanical Depositionxe2x80x9d, commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention.
If a conventional plating process is performed to deposit the conductive material, after performing such step in a deposition chamber, the workpiece may be transferred to another chamber for polishing (e.g., chemical mechanical polishing). In other instances, for example, ECMD, the deposition and polishing process can be performed using a dual depositing/polishing tool in a combined deposition/polishing chamber.
Regardless of which process used, the workpiece is next transferred to a rinsing/cleaning chamber after the deposition and/or polishing steps. A robotic arm/machine that lifts the workpiece by its edges from, for example, the deposition/polishing chamber to another horizontally configured cleaning chamber can perform this transfer process. Additionally, a workpiece cassette may be used to store the workpiece as it is being transferred from the deposition/polishing chamber to the cleaning chamber. The workpiece surface can then be cleaned using, for example, a spin, rinse, and dry process, as known in the art.
During such transfer of the workpiece from one chamber to another, contaminants such as particles may attach themselves on the workpiece surface because the workpiece is exposed to the external environment. The source of these contaminants may be the surrounding air, the processing facility, personnel, process chemicals, or the like. In some cases, exposing the workpiece to light between processing steps may not be desirable. The workpiece surface must be free of such contaminants; otherwise, the contaminants may affect device performance characteristics and may cause device failure to occur at faster rates than usual. Thus, such contaminants can result in defective chips, which results in lost revenues and low overall process yield for the manufacturer.
In the conventional method and apparatus described above, the rinsing/cleaning and deposition/polishing chambers are at least two separate horizontally configured chambers that are located apart from each other. Thus, workpieces are exposed to potential contaminants as they are transferred from one chamber to another. In addition, more physical space in a clean room is occupied when multiple chambers are required. This increases the costs for manufactures as they must use larger facilities in order to use such chambers.
Although, example here is given for carrying out the depositing/polishing and rinsing/cleaning processes, there are other types of processes that are being carried out in other horizontally configured chambers. These processes include etching or otherwise modifying the workpiece surface, depositing different materials on the workpiece surface, etc. Regardless of the specific processes that are being carried out in these conventional chambers, the costs associated to operate such chambers are nevertheless very high for the reasons mentioned above.
Therefore, there is a need for methods and apparatus for carrying out multiple processes on a workpiece using a vertically configured chamber without exposing the workpiece to the external environment. There is also a particular need for methods and apparatus for depositing/polishing the conductive material on the workpiece surface and then rinsing/cleaning such surface without exposing the workpiece to contaminants. Accordingly, the present invention provides a vertically configured containment chamber that can be used for carrying out different processes on the workpiece surface. The containment chamber of the present invention can be specifically used for both depositing/polishing the conductive material and rinsing/cleaning the workpiece surface. The present invention further provides a more cost effective, efficient, contaminant free methods and apparatus than those currently available.
It is an object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatus for carrying out multiple processes in multiple sections of a vertically configured containment chamber.
It is another object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatus for carrying out multiple processes such as depositing, plating, polishing, etching, rinsing, cleaning, and modifying a conductive material and/or a substrate surface using a vertically configured containment chamber.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatus that deposits a conductive material on a workpiece surface and then cleans the same surface in a vertically configured containment chamber.
It is another object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatus that deposits a conductive material on a workpiece surface using electro chemical mechanical deposition and cleans the same surface using a spin, rinse, and dry process in a vertically configured containment chamber.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatus that reduces/eliminates contaminants from being formed on the workpiece surface during multiple processing steps.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatus for decreasing the physical space occupied by multiple chambers by providing a vertically configured containment chamber for multiple processes.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatus that efficiently deposits and cleans a workpiece surface in a vertically configured containment chamber.
These and other objects of the present invention are obtained by providing a vertically configured containment chamber that can be used for multiple processes such as depositing a conductive material on the workpiece surface and cleaning the same surface. In one specific embodiment of the present invention, an electo chemical mechanical deposition can be performed in the lower half of the containment chamber while a spin, rinse, and dry process can be performed in the upper half of the containment chamber. A movable process/rinse guard is positioned in between the lower and upper halves of the containment chamber such that the two halves of the chamber are physically separated from each other during processing in the upper half of the containment chamber. The movable process/rinse guard further prevents a cleaning solution from entering the lower half of the containment chamber.
In a second embodiment of the present invention, multiple flaps are used to separate the upper and lowers halves of the containment chamber. For example, when the flaps are in their vertical position, a depositing/polishing process can be performed in the lower half, and when the flaps are in their horizontal position, a rinsing/cleaning process can be performed in the upper half. In addition, when the flaps are in their horizontal position, loss of electrolyte solution from the containment chamber due to vaporization is minimized.